The PM Podcast: To Make Someone Else's Life Better – A Conversation with Tracy Kronzak
Aired: February 28, 2026 – Hosted by Jay Frost | Produced by Jack Frost | Powered by DonorSearch

Episode Overview

This episode of The PM Podcast features an in-depth and raw conversation with Tracy Kronzak, a veteran of nonprofit technology, consultant, advocate for justice, and joyfully chronic pain in the side of the tech establishment. Tracy shares personal stories from a childhood in rural New Hampshire, surviving family trauma and economic instability, navigating Ivy League halls as a queer youth, bearing witness to violence in 1990s Moscow, and ultimately forging a career at the intersection of tech, justice, and mission-driven organizations. The discussion ranges from generational trauma to ethics in technology, resilience, and the urgent responsibilities facing nonprofits and foundations today.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Early Life: Hardship, Loss, and Empathy

• Tracy’s childhood in 1970s/80s rural New Hampshire: Comfortable middle-class life until the sudden loss of Tracy’s father, a government contractor and Korean War veteran.
  • “We went from very comfortably middle class to, oh my gosh, are we paying our mortgage? Because that's what really matters to keep us in the house.” (03:03)
• First job at 12: Picking strawberries with migrant workers after father’s death, instilled a lifetime understanding of labor, migration, and injustice.
  • "I know what it feels like to be sick from pesticides... You're telling me that you want to make the people who are working those jobs even more miserable... It's not cool, it's not fair, and it's inhumane." (04:48)
• Emotional Fallout of Loss: Father’s abuse colored the family's response—a mix of loss and relief, leading to years of therapy and healing.
  • “It was a mixture of profound loss and relief. And it took me years to reconcile. Not the profound loss, the relief.” (05:55)
• Generational perspectives: Tracy’s mother, a product of the Great Depression, illustrates silent stoicism and the persistence of generational trauma.
  • “We all have different generational trauma that I think we can either choose to unpick or not, but also informs our perspective...” (07:33)

Education and Family Tensions

• Mentorship and Access: Neighbor and WWII Marine veteran, Mr. Stillman, becomes proxy father. Strongly steers Tracy from banking to an Ivy League education at Cornell.
  • “‘I did not land at Iwo fucking Jima so that you can be a loan officer at a shitty bank in New Hampshire. You are going to college.’” (15:36)
• Coming out and Family Rejection: Describes being outed to conservative extended family. Avoids forced shock therapy by fleeing in the night.
  • "They're going to bring you to a mental institution, and they want you to voluntarily commit to shock therapy." (21:07)
  • "So I'm back in my dorm room. You will never see or hear from me again, and this is goodbye." (22:54)
• Mother’s Reconciliation: Despite family crisis, Tracy’s mother builds a private, loving bridge back, prioritizing their bond over community or tradition.
  • “She’s like, Tracy, I don’t care about the family. This is about you and me. You’re my child.” (23:39)

Russia: Witness to Unraveling

• Academic Pivot: Studies Russian and East European studies, winning scholarships to study in Moscow during times of upheaval (post-Soviet collapse).
• On the Ground in Moscow: 1993/94, experiences rampant poverty, mafia violence, and civil collapse, including witnessing a murder.
  • “That was where I witnessed a murder, couldn't do a damn thing about it because it had unraveled to the point where the mob kings were just openly themselves...” (29:11, 00:00 at open)
  • “That is why to this day, I worry that the course we're on as a country is going to lead to those outcomes. And if we don't do everything we can to stop the devolution of our own law, I already know what that looks like. It looks like getting away with murder, literally.” (31:34)
• Activism & Danger: Interviews early LGBT activists, including Masha Gessen; harrowing experiences with state surveillance and personal safety.
  • “People were much more optimistic than they, you know, probably had rights to be if they knew the future, but they didn't.” (29:11)
  • "…he was like, oh yeah, you got roofied pretty hard, and we all saw it happen, but you didn’t, so we just got you home. To this day, I have no memory of almost 48 hours." (32:23)

From Survival to Service: Entering Nonprofit Tech

• Rooted in Survival, Motivated by Justice: Tracy’s career path evolves from trauma and loss to public administration, then to tech consulting for mission-driven causes.
  • “What I do know and what I am motivated by very much is justice, because I know what it feels like to live with injustice and the profound uncomfortability that it... permeates throughout your entire life.” (08:38)
• Nonprofit/Tech Crossover
  • Early work in banking, then dotcom PR during the Bay Area boom ("circus at the end of days"), then into nonprofit tech management via learning-by-doing and a focus on enduring solutions, not cheap fixes. (39:27)
  • “I worked for this national racial justice nonprofit for, gosh, eight, nine years, and I was a pain in the ass to every technology company … [because] I was like, why doesn't your shit work for us?” (42:26)
  • Outspokenness leads to influence in developing Salesforce’s nonprofit platform, but also scrutiny: “I was told when I left, you are on a list of people we are watching, so you better watch what you say about us.” (44:49)
• Calling Out Tech’s Complicity: Confronts Salesforce for selling to anti-civil society and hate groups, juxtaposing the ethics of selling tools to both racial justice orgs and their ideological adversaries.
  • “You realize these are organizations that are using your technology to tear our country apart.” (46:47)

Ethics, Principles, and the Role of Organizations

• Tech Industry Ethics
  • The tech sector, Tracy notes, generally operates without a moral compass unless pressured by individuals inside and out.
    • “It does not [have principles]. It's taken me 25 years in the tech industry to realize it does not.” (48:30)
  • The legal personhood of corporations and their role as actors in society creates a profound responsibility.
• Nonprofits Under Siege: Calls out the new split in U.S. civil society between nonprofits under direct federal attack and the "safe" ones, and criticizes foundations and donor-advised funds for hoarding resources instead of responding courageously.
  • “Your responsibility as a nonprofit, your responsibility as a private foundation … is to open up the floodgates of money, figure out how you can get engaged with issues that you never even knew exist for the sake of saving our civil society and our country…” (55:15)

Memorable Quotes & Moments

• On motivation and responsibility:
  • "If you got yours, how can you help somebody else get theirs? … That's the responsibility that we have when we, quote, unquote, get ours." (09:21)
• On being a true pain in the ass:
  • “Here's the thread that connects it all… being a pain in the ass, really.” (42:26)
• On the lack of tech industry ethics:
  • “You can get enough money and enough status and enough prestige and enough power that you can kind of ignore your own moral compass if you really want to, because suddenly the problems of everyday people are not your problems.” (48:33)
• On civil society and nonprofits:
  • “There is a class of nonprofits that have lost jobs, whose staff are under federal attack… So now we have two classes of nonprofits. When we didn't before, we have those that are under direct federal attack … and then we have the safe ones.” (54:01)
• On family, healing, and faith:
  • “Whatever else is true, you can do something to make somebody else's life better. And she taught me that from a very young age…” (70:25)
• On what keeps Tracy going:
  • “I'll be candid and say, sometimes I don't. Sometimes I'm not renewed at all… What do I do? I walk my dog a lot. I ride my bike a lot. When I can, I go skiing…” (58:14)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:00 – 01:45: Opening scene; murder in Moscow and Tracy’s bio
• 03:03 – 07:33: Early life, father’s death, and working the fields
• 13:17 – 17:10: Mentorship and the Cornell story
• 20:54 – 23:39: Coming out, family rejection, reconciliation with mother
• 25:07 – 29:11: Moscow, privatization, and encountering violence
• 39:27 – 44:49: Nonprofit tech career, challenging the status quo
• 46:47 – 56:00: Ethics in tech, selling to hate groups & corporate responsibility
• 54:01 – 57:24: Nonprofit and foundation responsibilities in a time of crisis
• 58:14 – 66:32: Coping with burnout, joy, and sustaining activism
• 67:13 – 71:09: Reflections on family, faith, and living for justice

Closing Reflection

Tracy’s journey is a testament to the resilience that comes from hardship, the clarity found in witnessing injustice, and the relentless pursuit of making life better for others. This honesty, humor, grief, and hope make Tracy’s story not just an individual narrative, but a beacon for anyone committed to technology for good, nonprofit work, or simply being a more compassionate human in a challenging world.

Notable Resources Mentioned:

• "Higher Ground" by Alison Taylor (ethics and business)
• Writings about nonprofits under attack in late 2024 (unpublished)

Learn More:

• Tracy’s current project: Pledge no Hate / PledgeToHate Tech
• Host: Jay Frost, Producer: Jack Frost, Theme Music: Jay Taylor

This summary aims to give non-listeners a rich sense of Tracy Kronzak’s powerful story, the wisdom gained through struggle, and the urgent lessons for civil society today, all in Tracy’s own unmistakable voice.